Chewy Graham Cracker inspired Energy Bites

My original intention was to have a crispy graham cracker inspired cracker to share with you all today, so I guess this would fall under the category of a "kitchen fail" -- but sometimes even failures can taste really good! In this case it would be a shame not to share the recipe, even if it's not what I hoped it to be.

Don't worry, I'm not giving up on my raw vegan graham cracker experimentation, I just have to tweak a few things to get it perfect, as well as keeping it simple and relatively quick to execute. 

Get your sweet tooth ready because these healthy protein packed bites are a condensed super-dessert. Since I'm currently out of Strawberry Yogurt I've decided to let these be my pre-workout snack, and/or daily decadent treat. 

A little goes a long way (trust me), and as always you can do many different things with these bites; 

• Serve them on a platter with fresh sliced fruit for a brunch or tea date 
• Roll them (yes, they are very pliable!) up and stuff them with Vanilla Ginger Whipped Cream for a very decadent dessert 
• Keep them handy in your purse when you're traveling or running around town
• An after-school (or homework) treat for those well behaved-kiddos in your life
• They're a wonderful pick-me-up for moments when you just need something really sweet

Important Note About This Recipe

You can shape these in any dimension you like, but I recommend keeping them slighly less that 1/4'' thick. This will insure that you have a quicker drying time when making these. Otherwise the thicker they are the longer you'll have to wait to eat them. 

Chewy Graham Cracker inspired Energy Bites

Yields a lot!

Step 1.

Binding Mixture

1/2 c Water

1/4 c plus 1 Tbsp Ground Golden Flaxseed meal

Whisk all of the above together in a small mixing bowl.

Let it sit for 5 minutes or more, until you have a thick consistency like this:

Set aside and move onto the next step.

Step 2.

 Making your Batter

In your Food Processor grind to a fine meal:

3 c raw dry Almonds

Transfer ALL of your ground Almond meal to a large mixing bowl

Add the following:

1.5 c Coconut Crystals (also known as Coconut Palm Sugar)

2 tsp ground Cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground Allspice

1 large Vanilla Bean scraped

1 tsp Salt

Mix together all of the above dry ingredients

While your mixer is on, pour in the Binding mixture from Step 1.

Mix evenly unto you have a big thick and sticky ball of dough...

Almost done...

Step 3.

Assembling and Drying

Sandwich in between two sheets of parchment paper

Flatten with a rolling pin

I like to fold up the sides of my parchment paper to get a nice square

(Look at that amazing scoring job! Such talent!)

Score the dough before moving on to drying.

Drying Method

If you don't have a dehydrator you can make these in your oven by doing the following:

Set your oven at it's lowest heat, and leave the oven door cracked open roughly 5 to 6 inches for the entire drying time.

Leave your flattened dough on the parchment paper and place in either your dehydrator or oven. 

Proceed to dry for 5 hours.

At the end of the 5th hour remove your energy bites and let them cool on the counter for at least an hour.

After they've cooled flip them over and peel off the parchment paper.

Store them in an air tight container in your fridge and they will stay fresh for over a month.

Happy sweet snacking!

xoxo,

Sarahfae - AtV